90 days to Ellen Countdown

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That’s how hard we wagered our campaign to get Ellen DeGeneres to have lunch with us in an effort to raise money for Feeding America.

Well? We wish we could say that in the interest of drama, Ellen was watching the whole time and was waiting for the very last day to accept our invitation. The truth is… we didn’t hear anything from her.

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t disappointed that Ellen didn’t acknowledge the campaign. Even though it’s summer, and her show is on hiatus, we felt like a simple “no thank you” would have been better than nothing at all. With that said, that is the ONLY thing that has been disappointing about this campaign.

Through our effort over the last 90 days, we captured the attention of two major publications – Advertising Age and Forbes. As you read this, Forbes is actively pursuing a story about our campaign and has successfully contacted the Executive Producer of The Ellen Show to get Ellen to weigh in on it all. So, one could say that we’re as close as we could have ever gotten, save any contact from Ellen herself.

90 days ago, we had no idea the twists and turns ahead of us. This has been the single most surprising, rewarding and heart-warming experiment either of us have ever been a part of, ever (and that’s saying a lot from two marketing guys!). The support and willingness to share from complete strangers around the world has been incredible. People took time out of their busy lives to make videos, think of creative ways to help, donate to Feeding America and spread the word. For everyone’s contribution, we are humbled and grateful.

Our original intention was to prove that social media could be used for good, and forge relationships with people we would never otherwise meet. Here on day 91, it looks like we proved our hypothesis to be true.

Not in the way we thought it would turn out, in dining with Ellen. But through the new social friendships we’ve established over the last 3 months with people we would have never otherwise met (including our new friends in Switzerland!), and the money we raised for Feeding America – over $1,000, with the highest bidder coming from the International Culinary Center in NYC. Since they have a location here in the Bay Area, we hope to take our fan favorite “Ellen Stand-in” Lara Baker to lunch there someday to celebrate everyone eating.

7. Monetary donations of almost $1,500 to Feeding America from The International Culinary Center, Paper.li, Ben Hess, DJ Waldow and Kristina Milan (the “naysayer”), DJ’s mom and stepfather, and Bryan and Courtney Kramer

8. The campaign has generated over 66,172,240 impressions on Twitter (not counting Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+), achieved through sweat equity and a budget less than the cost of dinner. 20 million of these impressions were generated yesterday when our supporters helped us attempt to trend on Twitter (#damnyouMileyCyrus)

9. We have plans to create an “Ellen DeGeneres Social Kindness Award” to reward empathy and kindness in social media, as a tribute to the kindness and generosity we’ve experienced from our supporters. More on that to come.

At the stroke of midnight last night, we closed the book on 90 Days to Ellen. It’s a bittersweet ending, with no regrets, new friends, and a few more Americans getting fed. And for that, we call it a major success.

Looking forward to lunch with our Ellen “Stand-in”,
DJ and Bryan

PS. A HUGE thank you to EVERYONE in the socialsphere who helped us spread the #90DaystoEllen word. Social can be used for good, and you all are a shining example of this!

PPS. A very special thanks to Courtney Smith Kramer, who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes writing many of these blog posts, making memes and furiously sharing #90DaysToEllen with anyone who would listen.